第2929期:The world's largest digital camera

The biggest movie project of all time will soon launch on a remote mountaintop in Chile with a cast of billions. The subject nothing less than the entire visible universe.

有史以来规模最大的电影项目即将在智利一座偏远山顶启动，参演阵容达数十亿之众。主题不亚于整个可见宇宙。

We knew we needed an enormous camera, bigger than anybody had ever even conceived a building before.

我们知道我们需要一台巨大的相机，比任何人之前构想过的建筑还要大。

Steven Kahn is directing construction of a camera with a resolution of 3 billion pixels,

史蒂文·卡恩正在指导建造一台分辨率高达30亿像素的相机，

about 300 times the size of a smartphone image, which will create a time lapse record of the night sky over 10 years.

其成像尺寸约为智能手机照片的300倍，该设备将在10年时间里对夜空进行延时记录。

If you do this continuously for 10 years, then you'd have something like a thousand images of every part of the sky.

如果你连续拍摄10年，你将会拥有天空每个部分大约一千张的图像。

By comparing the images, you would see everything that changes in the sky and you would see everything that moves in the sky.

通过对比这些图像，你会看到天空中所有发生变化的事物，也会看到天空中所有移动的事物。

The unprecedented data collected by the camera funded by the US government will help probe two great scientific mysteries, dark matter and dark energy.

美国政府资助的摄像机收集到的前所未有的数据将有助于探索两大科学奥秘：暗物质和暗能量。

The researchers chose something more mundane for the camera's first test, a romanesco broccoli.

研究人员为相机的首次测试选择了更为普通的物体——罗马花椰菜。

It had a lot of structure on different scales. As you zoomed in you would see more things.

它有许多不同规模的结构，随着镜头不断放大，更多细节会逐渐显现。

Displaying the broccoli image at full size would require 378 ultra high definition TV screens.

要完整显示这颗西兰花的图像需要378台超高清电视屏幕。

Scientists around the earth will be analyzing the camera's data along with citizen scientists.

全球科学家将与公民科学家一同分析该相机传回的数据。

Kahn says there are enough galaxies for each classroom on earth to adopt one, giving students the potential to discover a supernova.

卡恩表示地球上的每个教室都能分到一个星系，学生们有望发现超新星。

The school kids could be the first humans to actually see that brightening star. The camera is expected to begin collecting images in 2023. 

学校里的孩子们可能会成为第一批亲眼目睹那颗变亮恒星的人类。预计该相机将于2023年开始采集图像。